Case Study: Gourmet Classic

Gourmet Classic is a successful, forward thinking company that has grown through the development and advancement of its people, alongside the development of new products. They are the experts and market leaders in cooking wines, and supply and package quality cooking wine to the food service industry; its brand message is ‘Serving Better’. The corporate goal is to make a difference to the entire industry.

The JRL Task

JRL was invited to work with two senior people in the business. Although Gourmet Classic was highly successful, certain skill sets needed to be developed in order for the business to continue to grow successfully and achieve the goals set out in its business plan.

Jenny had already worked with these two individuals earlier. The focus at that point was on time management, looking at business processes, and assessing how each executive spent their working week. At the end of a six-month programme, both executives worked differently and more effectively. They met more regularly to maintain interpersonal communications, productivity increased, and new projects were being implemented alongside existing projects for the same number of man-hours worked.

Jenny was invited back to work on developing leadership abilities within the business and to identify where communications could be further improved. JRL carried out a performance audit to identify what was working well, and what needed to be addressed.

Workshops

During this period, the vision for the business was updated to reflect how the values of this growing company had changed and to help develop the values further. JRL ran an interactive Values Workshop. The whole team contributed to the definition of what the company values moving forward should be, achieving buy-in and setting the scene for employees to both understand and live those values.

The marketing team also developed a new branding programme. So JRL facilitated another interactive workshop for the new brand values to be introduced, understood, adopted and acted upon.

The Results

Throughout the implementation of the 1-2-1 bespoke coaching programme, the climate in the company improved notably. The communication up and down the business is now superb. All members of the team are valued for their own contribution. And each department is working together more closely. It is now a fun, adventurous and rewarding place to work, where each person’s attitude has changed from sometimes simply performing a task because they had to, to doing it because they want to, confident in the knowledge that their contribution matters.

When new senior people now join the business, JRL will be invited to work with them to help them understand the culture of the business, to live the company values, and to settle in quickly to become more productive for the benefit of themselves and everyone in the organisation.

JRL also recommended associates (who are part of the JRL team) to participate in the development programme: one an HR Consultant to update and support a staff development appraisal programme; the other an IT Trainer and Communications Expert to help implement IT improvements.